Goodbye 2010

I'd like to have something profound to say for my last post of 2010, but I just don't have it in me.

The truth is, it's been a rough year in a lot of ways. We've had some of the toughest times of our lives. We've learned and grown a ton and I think that as cliche as it sounds, we are truly better people for it.

So goodbye 2010. I can't say I'll miss you but I can say I'm different for having met you.



Time for the next big adventure...

Christmas Day Recap - Freeboard

First of all, anyone cool enough to get the Skynyrd reference in the title gets extra points from me. Points are not redeemable for anything, but whatever.

*****

I already posted about Norah's Christmas presents - and let's face it, that was definitely the most important part - but I do have a few more photos of Christmas day. After the gift extravaganza that threw up all over my living room, Norah passed out for several hours (understandably) and Mark, my parents and my brother decided to take advantage of he freshly fallen snow to execute the first disk/tube/sled run down the side of our house. Given my "great with child" status, I stayed inside and blogged about Norah's presents.

My brother had been given an old snowboard by a friend. That's right, I said given. Clearly Bob has friends who love him or something. Anyway, Bob decided to blaze the trail for the disks to slide down the hill. The composition of the snow was packed, wet and mushy on the bottom and powder on the top couple of feet. Now, it could be that these are perfect boarding conditions, but given that this was Bob's first time on a snowboard and the hill our house sits on is pretty steep, the front of his board got stuck a few times. Still, he's WAY more coordinated than I'll ever hope to be (seriously, my parents put me in ballet when I was three in hopes that it would help me stop running into things) and he managed to only fall twice. I've taken the liberty of editing the photos so that he looks pretty much like a rock star. Yeah, I'm a cool big sister like that.

Big Sister

I've had a lot of people ask how Norah is liking her new little sister. Of course, they've only known each other a few days now. I'm sure there will be a ton of change coming as Penny gains independence and expresses herself more. For now, Norah has been the model big sister. She has been sharing toys and being gentle and speaking softly to er little sister, just as we've asked her to do.

On the way home from meeting Penny for the first time, Norah said to my mom, "Grammy, I miss my sister."

Hopefully that attitude continues on through high school. But I won't hold my breath.

Norah's reaction when Daddy told her that the baby was ready to be born.

Her very first view of baby Penny.

Proudly Presenting Penny!

I didn't want to be a bandwidth hog on the free wifi at the hospital. They have all sorts of warnings about bandwidth hogs not being tolerated (not even kidding). So now that we're home, here are some pictures of Penny's first day.

Modest Penny.

Proud Daddy with another girl!

Big sister Norah. She was interested in the baby for about five minutes. That was pretty much the most we could ask.

Daddy got a pictures of the kiss!

Great Grandpa and Great Grandma came for a visit.

*****

By the time we tried to get a family picture Norah was more interested in exploring the room, so most of the photos ended up like this:

Or this.

*****

We managed to get some sleep last night and were discharged today. Mark snapped a few pictures once I'd recovered a bit. We sure do love our little girl.

A little mid-morning snuggle and we were off!

Buh-bye for now!

For Unto Us...

...a child is born!

Sorry. I couldn't resist the Christmas reference.

At 7:39 am on December 28th, we welcomed Penny Lynn Jones. Coming in at a healthy 6 pounds 11 ounces & 19 inches long, she took only three pushes on the very first "pushing" contraction to make her appearance. That's a far cry from the 3 1/2 hours her big sister took!

She is absolutely perfect. We are both healthy (and hungry!) and should be discharged in the morning. Norah adores her little sister so far and insists that she will be "a very good mommy" to her.

Pictures are on their way ASAP!

Spoke Too Soon

As you may remember, in this post I celebrated the mild winter that we've had so far and proclaimed that I just might not have to drive to the hospital in the snow. Seems that I might have jumped the gun a little on that one.

Just two weeks ago, the weather boys - excuse me, meteorologists - had been warning that the La Nina weather pattern this winter would mean a very warm, very dry winter. Ski areas, especially ones near our town on the western slope of the Rockies, were furiously making snow every night that temperatures even approached freezing. People were really starting to think that it was going to be a dismal winter for cold weather sport lovers in this area.

Then came last weekend. Around Thursday or Friday (the 16th or 17th) we started hearing news of a monumental storm hitting our friends in California and heading right toward us. There was a lot of clearing of throats, straightening of clip-on ties and backpedaling about La Nina within the weather boy community (WHAT!?! They still call them weather girls). We watched the radar and sure enough, that storm was coming right for us! It was still supposed to be quite a warm one (you know, because of La Nina and all) but it was also predicted to dump precipitation on us for days.

When you live at 9,000 feet, you can pretty much count on a mid-December storm - even a warm La Nina one - to dump snow, not rain.

We left for the hospital on Saturday evening (the 18th) because I was having contractions and it had just started snowing. I wanted to get checked out just in case I went into labor quick since it was our second baby (HA!). As it turned out I was just in early labor and not far enough along to be admitted. If I had been 39 weeks they would have offered to break my water, but since I was only 38 weeks and 4 days that wasn't an option. They did, however advise me not to go all the way home since we live a solid 40 minutes from the hospital in good driving conditions. Because of the coming snow, they really didn't want me that far away just in case I progressed quickly (have I already said, "HA!"?).

Since Sweet Baby Jones #2 decided to be stubborn, we ended up spending the next 4 nights at my parents' house. They live 20 minutes closer to the hospital and are patient enough to put up with three extra people (including a toddler who's decided to test her boundaries in preparation for the new baby) and a 90-pound yellow lab. I'm super grateful that they let us stay, even though I'm STILL not in labor. It would have been really, really stressful to be up there during this storm. As it was, Mark went up every other day to clear the driveway and our almost-professional-grade-snow-blower barely kept up!


So, get to the good stuff, Shell. How bad was the storm really? I mean, it couldn't have been that bad right?


Well, yes and no. Here in town (at about 6,500 feet) it was almost all rain, even at night. That is super weird for Durango. The roads were a little slick and slushy, but it was nothing that the good people of our fair city couldn't handle. Honestly, it felt a little bit like early spring.

At our house, on the other hand, it dumped a full four feet of snow in five days! It went from looking like mid-October to mid-February in less than a week. The storm was really warm (what was the name of that weather pattern again?) so the snow was heavy and wet. It was tough to clear, not that I had to clear any - thank goodness for my amazing husband! - and it compacted pretty quickly.

To give you a basic idea of the kind of pummeling we got, our roof was almost completely clear when we left the house on Saturday. There was a light dusting, but probably 95% of the shingles were visible. When we came back home on Wednesday, our house looked like this:



I took this photo from the heated comfort of the truck, hence the water droplets. And yes, that is Mark shoveling a path for his hugely pregnant wife to waddle down the driveway before he busted out the snow blower for the fourth time in five days. Have I mentioned how grateful I am for him?

So as uncomfortable as I am, as annoying as 4 to 6 contractions every hour for a week has been, and as much as I would have liked to have already had this baby, I'm super glad that I don't have a "you were born in Daddy's truck on the way to the hospital in the middle of a blizzard" story.

After all, I'd hate for my kid's middle name to be "La Nina", especially if it happens to be a boy.

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program...

....for this special message.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Ok, ok, I know I said that the next post would be about our epic storm, but I'm still writing it in an attempt to do justice to its epic-ness.

And since it's Christmas,

and since Norah is napping,

and since all the rest of my family is sledding or snowboarding down the hill outside our dining room window,

and since I am currently forbidden from such activities for fairly obvious reasons,

and since I'm STILL not in labor...

I thought I'd post a few pictures of this morning's activities.

"Norah, are you ready to open presents?" "Uh, what do you think mom?"

**Please notice the reindeer clip in her hair. A precious man from our church, whom she calls "Big Hat Jim" gave it to her because he just couldn't stand how cute it would look on her. One day, I'm convinced, she's going to con him out of some big ticket item just by batting her eyes.**

Opening her first stocking present.

When she got stuck, she'd tell us, "Dis is kinda hard."

Looking SO grown up (Seriously! Look how tall she looks!!) in a poncho and hat from Grandma. It even has a matching hat and scarf for her baby doll.

Huh, how convenient! I can take this off all by myself!

At the start of each new present she would say, "Waddit gonna beeee?"

A sweater from Grandma and Grandpa!!

Super excited about her Dora Backpack video game.

This smile says to me, "People keep telling me to smile about being a big sister, so I guess I'll humor them." I think it's about how she's going to feel about the new baby in a few weeks. :-)

My dad (who goes by Grampy) got Norah a very special present this year. He got a set of grown up & kid sparring boxing gloves. Boxing with dad was one of our favorite activities as kids. I credit those play boxing sessions as the reason I've never had much of a problem keeping my hands up and my head down when I needed to. Not that I've ever actually fought anyone, but I could. And some day, so could Norah...

Uncle Bob helping her get her gloves on.

Landing a good one.

Grampy teaching her to keep her gloves up.

She'll get it eventually...

We're heading to Mark's grandparent's in an hour or so, provided I'm STILL not in labor. I might have some more pictures after that.

For now, Merry Christmas from the Joneses!!

Babywatch Twenty Ten!

I think "Twenty Ten" sounds better when you spell it out. Anyhow, here's a little bit of background:

On Saturday I had contractions about ten minutes apart all day. It was the 18th - a full ten days from my due date - but it was also starting to snow heavily for the first time all Winter (more on that in the next post) and I was little nervous. I called the doctor and explained my physical condition (dialation, effacement and all that fancy stuff) and asked him what he thought I should do. He said to go ahead and come in. Awesome. We took a little extra time getting things together just to make sure the contractions didn't stop. They were still coming but they were also still about ten minutes apart. I started to get excited thinking that I was finally going to meet this new little member of our family. I remembered how amazing it was when Mark and I first met Norah.

Once we got to the hospital and they monitored me for fifteen minutes or so they said that I wasn't consistent enough to be admitted. They let me walk around for about an hour to see if the contractions would start back up, but they just weren't quite there. When the nurse found out where we lived she advised that we not go home because the road conditions were deteriorating and she didn't want us to get stuck up there if I went into labor. That night was the beginning of what we now know was an epic storm.

Long story short, we have spent every night since Saturday at my parent's house because they live about 25 minutes closer to the hospital than we do. My loving husband, for whom I couldn't be more grateful, has gone up to our house every other day to snow blow the driveway. I'll write more about the giant storm in the next post.


In the mean time, here's the current status:

I am still pregnant. As a result, I'm pretty miserable. I'm approximately as miserable as every other woman who's 39 weeks pregnant, more than some, less than others. The contractions get harder in the evening, so I get excited every evening that "this might be the night" but so far, this kid has decided to take his/her sweet time.

We're spending the night at home for the first time since Saturday. I love my parents and I'm completely and totally grateful that we've been able to crash here and wait for the storm to pass, but I'm really, really excited to sleep in my own bed tonight! The storm has mostly passed so if tonight actually is the night, hopefully we'll be able to get there without any in-car special deliveries.

Stay tuned for info on the epic storm!

PS - We did go to the doctor yesterday for my regular appointment and she said that she'd be surprised if I made it to my due date. The due date is Tuesday so hopefully Babywatch Twenty Ten will be over before then!

Get With the Program

So in yesterday's post, I said that the kiddos were going to get up on stage and sing. Norah's whole class of 2-3 year olds got up and "sang". By "sang" I mean that they alternately glared at the bright lights, waved at their moms and picked their noses. Observe the awesomeness:

Wait, what are we doing again?

Hey, there's my mom!

DJ Jack-a-Bo about to drop some hot beatz on the mic.

Norah half pretending to try to do the motions.

I love that the two oldest kids on the left are the only ones doing the motions.

Norah never did manage to pick us out of the congregation, which was probably for the best. But it did make for a lot of pictures of her scowling or looking confused.

Christmas Dress (sorta)

It's a good thing that the children's ministry department at our church sent out an e-mail reminding us that the kids would be on stage singing yesterday. If they hadn't, I wouldn't have put Norah in something so cute.

I also wouldn't have had a minor coronary when I realized on Saturday night that I have been so sick I haven't even gotten Norah a Christmas dress yet! Fortunately, I remembered that this precious family at our church had just given us a box of hand-me-down clothes and I thought I had seen a little dress in there. Sure enough, there it was!! So thank you, Jonas family, for Norah's ADORABLE Christmas dress!

As most photo shoots go with toddlers, I got a ton of blurry "action shots" and one or two un-blurry, almost or mostly smiling shots. So eat 'em up folks!

**It was at this point that she decided that she was done standing still for pictures and she wanted to dance and sing the Veggie Tales Theme Song**

Here's the wind-up...

And her slammin' moves!

The Train, The Train!!

I know my last few posts have been fairly photo-lite. I'll try to make up for it with this one. On Friday, Norah went for a ride on the train with my parents. It was a "locals appreciation" ride, which means that it's less expensive and it only goes about half as far as the normal train ride before turning around and coming back. A 5 hour ride (as opposed to the usual 8 hour one) was probably a great first ride for a toddler.

Here are some highlights!



She might be a little excited about the train...


Only in Durango do people bring their dogs to wave goodbye to the train.


Aah, scenery.


And really, really cold lakes.


Hangin' with Grampy.


Now THAT'S a cliff!


Makin' friends.


Having a picnic lunch before turning around to come home.


Train nap!


Saying hi to the horses back at the station.